Break Em Out Again!
Well that was fun! After a tough road trip, the Sox were happy to be home and showed it by absolutely DESTROYING the A's over a three game sweep. Breaking each game down individually is a bit pointless, because the Sox outscored Oakland 40-15 over the series. 40 RUNS IN THREE GAMES!! That's what this offense is capable of, and what's truly special about this lineup is how deep it is 1-9. Lets go through some of the outstanding stats and performances from this epic beatdown.
-The Red Sox have no pulled into a tie with the Chicago Cubs for the MLB lead in runs scored with 196, or 5.8 runs per game.
-The Sox +48 run differential (the best indicator of a teams performance) is the best in the American League, and trails only the Cardinals (+50) and the Cubs (+99!!!) in all of baseball.
-6 of the Red Sox starting 9 are now batting over .300
-In addition to 40 runs, the Red Sox piled up 48 hits against the A's, giving them a team batting average of .403 for the series.
-21 of those hits went for extra bases, including 8 home runs and 13 doubles. So much for those concerns about the Sox inability to hit for power!
-Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to be an absolute monster. He was 8-14, with 3 HR and 13 RBI in the series
-JBJ extended his hitting streak to an MLB best 17 games: he is hitting .406 with 14 extra base hits over that span, and is fourth in MLB since August 2015 with 48 extra base hits. After a disastrous start to his MLB career at the plate, the kid has it figured out and I for one could not be happier about it
-Having Bradley hit 8th or 9th when he's on fire like this seems like a pretty odd move for manager John Farrell, but Im actually in favor of it. I see no reason to disrupt the rhythm he is in right now, and moving him up in the order could hurt his production. Having a threat like JBJ at the bottom of the order actually gives the Sox an advantage over every other team, as there are no easy innings for opposing pitchers. With his speed, Bradley at the bottom of the order essentially acts as a second leadoff hitter, setting the table for the top of the lineup. Additionally, the team as a whole is basically the nine horsemen of the apocalypse right now, so there is no need to change anything.
-Travis Shaw was 7-12 with 4 XBH this series. He is a beast, and is the reason we can hope to never see that fat fuck Pablo Sandoval in the Red Sox lineup ever again
-Dustin Pedrioa has rediscovered his power stroke. After declining for three straight seasons with only 28 HR combined, he has proven that those issues were injury related with his play so far this year. Petey has 6 HR already, and is tied for sixth in MLB with 44 hits--one behind his middle infield partner Xander Bogaerts.
-Speaking of the X-man, Bogaerts had multiple hits in all three games of the series, raising his average to .328, good for 4th in the American League
-Hanley Ramirez continues his remarkable turnaround. Coming into the season, Hanley was a couple hamburgers short of Pablo Sandoval, and his transition to First Base was dreaded. People were discussing when, not if, his defense would make him totally unplayable, and were desperately searching for ways the Sox could trade him away. Fast forward six weeks, and Hanley has completed flipped the script. He is hitting over .300 with 4 HR in the past week. Perhaps most impressively, his defense has not only been not awful, its been downright good. I can't remember an athlete turning my opinion on him so completely in such a short period
Next up is 4 games with the Astros, who should at least present the Sox the major league-level competition
No comments:
Post a Comment